Latest update April 24th, 2024 12:59 AM
Apr 01, 2015 Sports
Manager Singh says cricket on the rise in the USA
By Zaheer Mohamed
Rain prevented any play in the U-13 fixture which was set for Monday last at Bourda between Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) and the visiting New York Cricket Academy. The umpires were forced to call off play after lunch.
While expressing his disappointment, Operations manager of the NY Academy Juwala P. Singh told Kaieteur Sport that the game is on the rise in the United States. Singh, a Guyanese by birth stated that they got the people there to recognize the game as a professional sport. “We managed to start coaching in the schools about four years ago and now we have about 31 schools playing the game competitively. New York City Police Department and the Mayor and Parks are also involved,” he said.
Singh indicated that former Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg donated US$5.3M to the Academy for the development of the game. He pointed out that the game will continue to expand stating that the market for the game there is good. Singh informed that they would tour various countries from time to time and one of their aims is to expose the players to turf pitches since they play on mattings in the USA. He expressed gratitude to the Guyana Cricket Board for facilitating their visit.
Former GCC player and coach of the visiting team, Linden Fraser said they are currently preparing their U18 team for the ICC Americas U19 qualifiers which will be held later this year in Canada. “We also want the U13 and U15 players to know what it is like to play overseas,” he posited.
Linden said he is pleased with the tour so far, but the players would have liked to play at the world famous, GCC ground. The coach informed that the players are talented adding that Trinidad and Tobago batsman William Perkins is a product of their academy.
Linden feels that if Caribbean Premier League (CPL) matches are being played in the USA, it will help them to expand the game rapidly. “The West Indies is our neighbour and we do look forward to some help from them. The staging of CPL games in the USA will motivate the young players and attract large crowds,” he said.
He stated that their academy is affiliated to the USA cricket association and they would like to have more international matches being played there. “There is a lot of scope for the game in the USA, but we have to get the American kids involved to attract the market. The baseball players are interested in the T20 format since their game (baseball) last for three hours as well,” said Linden.
He said that they hope to visit annually and will be happy to host any Guyana team. Linden declared that they have a strong female team which includes Guyanese Candacy Atkins, Triholder Marshall and Indomattie Gordial and they want to participate in the West Indies female tournament in Trinidad and Tobago in August. He expressed confidence that their female team will do well and the players have started to train for the competition. “The female players think that there is not much scope for them since the ICC stopped the Americas women’s qualifiers and they are pretty upset. Nevertheless we are hoping to use the WICB tournament to convince the ICC to restart the Americas qualifiers and I am confident we can get ODI status,” he stated.
Their tour concludes on April 5.
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